Characters and Story

It has been quite a while since I have written anything for this blog. For some reason my love for writing has dwindled in the last year or so. I hope this is not a permanent thing. But anyhow, I felt the urge to write something today.

I was pondering something when I woke up this morning and I want to get it out in writing. I have been quite addicted to this television comedy, 30 Rock. I had only seen one episode before this month but now I have watched the first 3 season of it. I was contemplating what about that show has drawn me in over the past month. The show has won multiple Emmy awards and is critically acclaimed for its brilliant writing. Though the writing is definitely above par and it is quite funny, I do not think that is the reason I was so taken by the show. It was the characters. I had fallen in love with the characters on the show. I connected with them. I wanted to hear more about their lives, their stories, their backgrounds, their dreams, and their hopes. They are not even real people, but I was drawn into their lives. I began to draw a possibly cliché sounding, sermon-like parallel between this and the biblical narrative, though this parallel hit me deep within my soul. Why have I not fallen in love with the Bible more? The Bible is a story about a God! The greatest character in any story ever told since the foundations of the earth. The Story of the Triune God should be the narrative that draws me in even more. One of the most valuable things I have learned at Biola so far is how to read the bible and see God on every page, whether he is mentioned by name or not. The Old Testament is not just a story about Israel's history, it is so much more than that, God's life and story is weaved throughout the history of this group of people. Added to that, every book in the Old Testament points ahead to the life of the not yet born Jesus. Then comes the newer revelation from God, the New Testament. Here God himself becomes man. God reveals himself to be even more relational. Through the God-man Jesus, we can relate to God even more personal, God and I can relate even in our struggles! I feel like growing up in the Church and in Sunday School, I have grown far to used to the Biblical stories, I have not been allowing myself to read the Bible with a fresh desire to hear about God's story-To connect my own story to the story of Yahweh.